Stephen White Ela

Stephen White Ela Steve Ela, of Paso Robles, died on March 25, 2016, in Washington, D.C. Steve was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1939. He grew up in Madison and graduated from West High School and Harvard College, before moving to California in 1961 to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry at UCLA. During a postdoc at Stanford he became involved in activism against the war in Vietnam, and met Judith Strasser, whom he would marry, and with whom he would have two sons. In 1975, Jed Ela was born in Davis, California. The next year, the family moved to Madison, and Nate Ela was born two years later. In Madison, Steve continued working in science and became involved in sailboat racing. After separating from Judith in 1986, Steve returned to Stanford and joined the genetics lab of his longtime friends, Len and Lee Herzenberg. Steve had fallen in love with the landscape of California's Central Coast during graduate school, and after retiring he moved to Paso Robles, where he became involved in community organizing for a transition away from dependence on fossil fuels, and toward more sustainable ways of living. Steve is survived by his son Jed Ela, daughter-in-law Nazgol Ghandnoosh, and granddaughter Ashavan Ela, of Washington, D.C.; and by his son Nate Ela and daughter-in-law Meghan Morris, of Somerville, Mass. Steve requested not to have a public memorial service; donations may be made in his memory to One Cool Earth, P.O. Box 150, San Luis Obispo, Calif., 93406, or via the Donate link at www.1coolearth.org/programs/educational-programs/ Sign his guestbook at sanluisobispo.com/obituaries